The University of Sydney

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Solutions to Quiz 1
MATH2069/2969: Discrete Mathematics and Graph Theory

Semester 1, 2013

Name:

SID:

Enrolled in (please circle):

MATH2069

MATH2969

This quiz lasts 30 minutes. There are a total of 25 marks.

Answers must be written in pen in the boxes provided. Anything written in pencil or
written outside the boxes will not be marked.
()
Your answers can be given in the form of an expression such as 4 3 72 or S(9, 5),
if you wish, as long as it fits in the answer box i.e. you are not required to find the
numerical value.

c 2013 The University of Sydney

Copyright

1.

(a) What is the number of diagonals of a regular polygon with 100 vertices?
100 97
= 4850
2
(b) How many numbers between 1 and 300 inclusive are divisible by 5 or 9?
300
5

300
9

300
45

= 60 + 33 6 = 87

(c) Complete the table counting the ways to make an unordered selection of 15
things from 10 possibilities:
(
) ( )
24
15 + 10 1
=
15
15

repetition allowed

( )
10
=0
15

repetition not allowed

(d) Consider the sequence an = 17 Fn , where Fn are the Fibonacci numbers.

Then an satisfies the homogeneous linear recurrence relation:
an = an1 + an2

(4 marks)

2. Count the subsets of the set {n N | 51 6 n 6 150} which have

(a) exactly 7 elements

( )
100
7

(b) exactly 7 elements and all of them are multiples of 9

( )
11
7

(c) exactly 7 elements and exactly 5 of them are odd numbers

( )( )
50 50
5
2

(d) an odd number of elements

299

(e) at least 5 elements and exactly 5 of them are odd numbers

( )
50 50
2
5
(5 marks)

3. Count the strings of length 9 formed by any of the 26 upper case letters where
(a) no letter is used more than once

26(9)

269

(b) letters can be repeated

(
(c) each of P, Q and R is used three times
(d) the letters are in alphabetical order
(as in BDEHPRSYZ)
and no letter is used more than once
(e) the letters are in alphabetical order
(as in BBBBRRYZZ)
and can be repeated

)
9
3, 3, 3

( )
26
9

(
)
26 + 9 1
9
(5 marks)

4. How many dierent ways can you put 12 coins in 12 boxes B1 , . . . , B12 if
(a) the coins are all dierent and no box is empty

12!

(b) the coins are all dierent and

only three boxes B10 , B11 and B12 are empty
(c) the coins are all dierent and
exactly four boxes are not empty
(d) the coins are all dierent and each box is
either empty or contains exactly three coins

9!S(12, 9)
( )
12
4!S(12, 4)
4
( )(
)
12
12
4
3, 3, 3, 3
( )
23
12

(e) the coins are identical

(f) the coins are identical and

( )( )
12 11
6
6

exactly six boxes are empty

(6 marks)

5. Consider the recurrence relation an = an1 + 20 an2 , for n > 2.

(a) What are the roots of its characteristic polynomial?

x = 4, 5

(b) Write down the form of the general solution:

an = C1 (4)n + C2 5n for some constants C1 , C2
(c) Give the solution when a0 = 1, a1 = 14:
an = (4)n 2 5n
(3 marks)

6. Consider the recurrence relation an = r1 an1 + r2 an2 + r3 an3 , for n > 3. The
roots of its characteristic polynomial are x = 2 of multiplicity 2 and x = 3 of
multiplicity 1.
(a) Write down the form of the general solution:
an = C1 (2)n + C2 n (2)n + C3 3n

for some constants C1 , C2 , C3

(b) Find the values of the constants r1 , r2 and r3

r1 = 1,

r2 = 8,

r3 = 12
(2 marks)

END OF QUIZ.